Building Power to Shape Labor Policy: Unions, Employer Associations, and Reform in Neoliberal Chile By Pablo Pérez Ahumada, University of Pittsburgh Press, May 2023, 224 pp., ISBN: 9780822947691 (hardback), Price USD 55.00
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| Author | Yao‐Tai Li |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12768 |
984 BOOK REVIEWS
DOI: 10.1111/b jir.12768
Building Power to Shape Labor Policy: Unions, Employer Associations,
and Reform in Neoliberal Chile
By Pablo Pérez Ahumada, University of Pittsburgh Press, May 2023, 224pp., ISBN:
9780822947691 (hardback), Price USD 55.00
Yao -Tai L i
School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NewSouth Wales, Australia
Correspondence
Yao-Tai Li, School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney,New South Wales, Australia.
Email: yaotai.li@unsw.edu.au
In the book Building Power to Shape Labor Policy,Pérez Ahumada explores a timely and important
question: Why are pro-business labour legislation and labour reform during the shift to neolib-
eralism so difficult to achieve? Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival researchin Santiago
and interviews with respondents from different ‘classes’ (business representatives, union leaders
and party leaders), Pérez Ahumada argues for the central role of ‘associational power’.
Chile is an illustrative case, as it is a highly globalized and neoliberal country that has success-
fully shifted to democracy (pp. 10–15).Yet, collective bargaining power and union membership are
not guaranteed, even with the linkages to left-wing governments. On the failure of labour policy
reform, scholars in the fields of industrial and employment relations have offered explanations
from historical legacies, government policy orientation (in relation to economic development), as
well as asymmetrical political and economic power between employers and employees (pp. 16–
20). Acknowledging these perspectives, Pérez Ahumada extends the concept of power imbalance
between workers and employers; specifically,the strategies and outcomes when both workers and
employers build and mobilize ‘associational power’ to influence the government’slabour policies.
Associational power, in Pérez Ahumada’s definition, is ‘how workers and employers mobilize
members and organize (at the political system) to advance their class interests’ (p. 8). It includes
membership recruitment and participation, strategic capacity to advance class interests,class soli-
darity,and strategic consensus, infrastructural resources and organizational efficiency (pp. 34–37).
Associational power, as Pérez Ahumada argues, needs to be understood from a ‘relational’ per-
spective as it interacts with other forms of power,such as structural, political and social power (pp.
40–41). The relational character of power (pp. 8, 33) is a useful tool to understand the interaction
and different capacities between workers and capitalists. It also shows that the power of workers
and capitalists is mutually influenced.
While workers and capitalists can both facilitate their associational power in shaping labour
policies, their influence is nevertheless unequal. Pérez Ahumada contrasted the experiences of
Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) and the Confederation of Production and Commence
(CPC) and showed that capitalists are more capable of mobilizing association power in estab-
lishing stronger class solidarity and influencing the government (pp. 85–93, chapter 5), whereas
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